Mobile Shopping Game Urges People To Buy In Stores Rather Than Online

New mobile shopping game ‘Tip or Skip‘ encourages people to buy things in stores rather than price shopping to find the best deal online, a trend known as “showrooming.” Nathaniel McNamara and Michael Weiksner developed the app, which they hope people will use to identify products tailored to their tastes and then purchase them in-store.

Tip or Skip lets players submit photos of clothes, gadgets, etc, which the community judges by either selecting ‘Tip’ if they like it or ‘Skip’ if they don’t. ‘Tipped’ photos earn those who submitted them ‘sway points,’ which they can use to tip more items as they compete to become tastemakers. So if you have an eye for what’s popular, you move up the scoreboard.

The app plays up the ability to purchase items offline, by aiming to offer info such as price and store location with every photo. Players can take photos of products in local stores and include Foursqaure data or drop a pin on a map to show where it can be bought from.

Wired reports that Tip or Skip is also looking to utilize Apple’s upcoming location-aware Passbook feature to notify players that a product they tipped is available in a nearby store when they are walking around town. The app would also find deals nearby for items they’ve tipped, prompting them to support physical retailers.